Der Freischütz (The Marksman)

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A master marksman finds himself unable to catch any wild swine or deer in the dark autumn forests. One day, he's approached by a mysterious peddler wrapped in a cloak that conceals his face. The peddler offers the marksman seven bullets, with one condition. The first six bullets will hit whatever the marksman wants them to hit, but the peddler will choose the trajectory of the seventh. The marksman agrees.

The marksman quickly earns himself a reputation as the best hunter in the village, as he brings home wild boar after wild boar. He catches the eye of the prettiest girl in town, and they fall in love.

But all too soon, the marksman uses up all six bullets, and when he shoots the seventh, it goes astray and hits his love in the chest, killing her.

The peddler appears to the distraught marksman and reveals himself as the devil. Live a pious life, repent of your hubris, and you will be reunited with the girl after your death, the devil tells the marksman. The marksman tries, but he is overcome by desire for another girl in the village, and he marries her instead.

One year to the day after his bullet pierced his original love's chest, he is riding in the forest when he comes across a clearing where skeletons dance around cold flames. One of the skeletons, the girl's, waltzes with him all night, and the next morning, the villagers find the marksman and his horse, dead, at the edge of the forest.

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